[TowerTalk] Crimp or Solder

[Peter Dougherty]

At 12:00 PM 06/22/2007 Kelly Johnson wrote:
>>So, where can I find a stripper that will correctly strip my coax?
>>
>>I bought 20 crimp-on PL-259's and a stripper a couple of months ago
>>from www.rfparts.com.  I'm borrowing a friend's crimper.  The problem
>>is that I can't seem to adjust the stripper to properly strip the
>>coax.

DX Engineering sells a Cablematic UT-8000 coax stripper for about 
$40. This prepares RG-213 and similar coaxes perfectly (though I've 
never used LMR-400 - I don't know if it would handle that). It's 
barrell shaped; put the coax in the 1st cut end of the barrel, apply 
a little forward pressure, make about 10 turns and you've done the 
first cut (jacket, braid and center insulator). Put that stripped end 
in the 2nd cut end, another 10 turns or so, and you've peeled back 
the jacket without nicking the braid; again, perfectly.

Just slip on your connector barrel then your connector body, crimp, 
solder the center pin if you wish, and you're done in a few seconds. 
I also use heat-shrink over the coax as well for a more professional 
look when finished and to colour-code the coaxes.

I use the procedure outlined here with 100% success:
http://www.bcdxc.org/pl259_crimp_on_connectors.htm



Cheers,

Peter,
W2IRT